The Calm Before the Storm
by becca85
Summary: No matter how hard he tried, he seemed unable to understand his daughter.


**A/N: I am presently in the middle of writing a multi-chapter Labyrinth fanfic, but this little one-shot came to mind, so I decided to take a small break from the other and jot this one down. My multi-chapter fanfic takes place six years after the movie and as this takes place prior to the movie, I obviously couldn't fit it into the longer fanfic. I won't be posting the multi-chapter one until I see an end in sight because I hate leaving readers hanging if my imagination deserts me mid-story (and I actually have a dedicated audience that wants to follow my story).**

**Even though the manga sequel names both parents, I liked the fan-selected (pre-manga) name for the stepmother as Karen, as opposed to Irene from the manga. For the sake of all my Labyrinth fanfics, the names I will use for the parents are Robert and Karen. For this story specifically, I didn't have a timeline in mind, so it can be read as happening any time before the events of the film. In order to keep my focus straight, I imagined it one week before the Labyrinth, but it can really be any time.**

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own any of the characters or ideas created by Jim Henson. I borrowed them for the entertainment and amusement of my audience. **

**SUMMARY: ****No matter how hard he tried, he seemed unable to understand his daughter.**

**GENRE: Drama**

**RATING: PG**

**DATE: March 11, 2013**

**::~*~::**

Robert alternated between pacing in front of the fireplace, wringing his hands frantically, and sitting on the edge of the armchair, his head buried in his hands. _Where is she?_ He thought morosely from his perch on the chair.

Karen watched him from her semi-relaxed position on the sofa. She was just as worried, but since Robert was more visibly worried, she figured she was the one who needed to keep a cool head and keep him from doing something drastic. Not for the first time in the last couple of hours, she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

As though her sigh was a signal, Robert leapt to his feet. "I've got to call now." He started towards the kitchen where the phone hung on the wall.

Karen got to her feet and intercepted him before he could leave the room. She put her hand gently on his arm. "Darling, we agreed not to do anything until six o'clock. You know how she is. I'm sure she just got carried away with her daydreaming." She started fiddling with the collar of his shirt, seeking to sooth his frazzled nerves through the power of touch. "Come. Sit down. We'll give it ten more minutes and then we'll make the call." Ten more minutes would put the time at five thirty and Karen decided that was an acceptable compromise. Calling the police was not a decision to be made lightly.

She grabbed his hand and started to lead him back into the room when the front door crashed open, wind whistling through the hall and into all the ground floor rooms. It quickly diminished as the door slammed shut. Robert and Karen looked at each other in surprise before hastening into the front entryway.

Despite spending the better part of the afternoon fretting over his daughter's welfare, Robert was a little surprised at the stern tone his voice took on when he addressed her. "Sarah, where have you been? We've been worried sick about you!"

Sarah looked at them skeptically as she pulled off her windbreaker and hung it on the coat rack, pushing her windblown hair out of her face. Robert understood the look was more for Karen than it was for him, though the thought made him feel a little guilty. Even though Robert and Karen had been married almost two years, Sarah's behavior towards Karen was still lukewarm—at best. After this long, he was at an absolute loss as to how to encourage a cordial relationship between the two.

Merlin bolted past the two adults, eager to find his food and water dishes, but they paid him no heed. Sarah tried to stuff her book into her pocket before they caught sight of it, but her father narrowed his eyes slightly towards the movement and she gave up.

"I was walking the dog," she cried. "That's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

"You left to walk the dog _four hours ago!_" he responded, trying his hardest to maintain a calm demeanor, or, at the very least, a normal tone of voice. He groaned in exasperation. "Sarah, I don't think you understand what we've been through for the last couple of hours. We were concerned about you. What if something had happened? What if you had been kidnapped? What if you had been murdered?" The very thought made him a little nauseous. He couldn't bear to think about his only daughter being taken from him; whether thru abduction or death, it made no difference.

Sarah scoffed as she stood in the entryway, her arms crossed over her chest. "When's the last time anything even remotely criminal happened here? We live in the most boring town in Europe!"

Robert stared at her, incredulous. "Would you rather we lived somewhere that was more 'adventurous,' as you would put it?"

Sarah noticeably deflated. She couldn't imagine having her solitary afternoons in the park taken away from her and if they lived in a more criminally active area, she'd never be let out of the house again. "Not really," she replied meekly. In an attempt to bolster her own independence, she continued. "I'm fifteen years old. Why can't you trust me that I can take care of myself?"

While he hadn't been aiming for it at all, Robert actually caught a brief glimpse of a silver lining. "It's lucky for you that Karen had a more level head on her shoulders than I did this afternoon. She trusted you to be _you_ and had to keep me from calling the police several times."

Both Karen and Sarah looked very surprised by that statement, gazing at him with wide-eyed confusion. Karen had been standing by, silently watching the exchange between father and daughter, unsure if she should say anything. When Robert said what he did, Karen had been about to object, not because she didn't trust Sarah (she actually did), but because she had merely been trying to keep her husband from doing anything drastic.

For the first time since the conversation had begun, Sarah looked at Karen. "You trust me?" she asked curiously.

With both her husband and stepdaughter staring at her, Karen was momentarily speechless. Sarah's eyes widened slightly as the thought crossed her mind that her father may have twisted Karen's concern around in order to forge a bond between them. She opened her mouth to accuse him when Karen quickly nodded her head and, giving Sarah a warm smile, said, "Absolutely. I know we've had our differences, but I really do trust you. Would we leave Toby in your care if I didn't?"

Sarah's eyes switched back and forth between her father and her stepmother, studying them intently. "I don't believe you." Pushing past them, she ran up the stairs to her room. Robert made to follow her, but Karen tugged on his sleeve.

"Just let her go. The important thing is that she is home safe, which is what we wanted." Robert looked longingly up the stairs, but conceded to his wife.

So focused had they been on Sarah's welfare, dinner hadn't even been prepared, so both of them moved slowly off to see to the meal. Twenty minutes later, when they sat down to the evening meal, Sarah kept her head bowed and refused to make eye contact with anyone. Robert kept attempting to make conversation, but Sarah never went for more than mono-syllabic responses and he soon gave up. Karen seemed uncomfortable with the silence, and, not sure what efforts she could make to alleviate the tension, if any would even be received favorably by Sarah, she kept her attention on Toby and making sure he ate his dinner. It was a quiet, tense affair, and Sarah retreated back to her room as soon as she could. Robert watched her go.

"She'll be fine," Karen said over his shoulder. She wiped some food off of Toby's mouth before feeding him another spoonful. "She's a teenage girl. This is just part of that rebellious stage all teenagers are known for."

Robert frowned, but didn't say anything. None of his colleagues who had teenagers mentioned them behaving like Sarah had been lately. With increasing frequency she could be found more and more often with her nose in a book, more specifically a certain book, and her head in the clouds. Even with the idea of rebellious teenagers in mind, he didn't think his daughter's passion for fantasy stories was normal or healthy. Robert just shook his head. No matter how hard he tried, he seemed unable to understand his daughter.

**::~*~::**

**A/N: Even though this was a short little one-shot, Robert's concerns about Sarah, briefly touched upon here, actually pop up more prominently in my multi-chapter fanfic. I suppose there really wasn't any point in this story, other than the fact that I wanted to explore the opening sequence of the movie using the idea that it happened as something of a regular occurrence. **


End file.
